The Dickinson press., 1887-08-27
NEW YORK TENEMENT SCENES.
The History OF One Blook-Evolusion Of
Tough-A Landlord.


Could the history Of this single block be
written, say for the past year, it would mako
strong men turn faint. Women in the agonies
Of child birth on the bare floor, with the
stencil from cespools rising unchecked to
der years cooped up in narrow cells with
ones going blind with the terrible infectious
ophthalmia which runs riot through the
poorer quarters, the sick and the aged turned
their vile quartels-in short, a Thousand ter
rible happenings to make people wonder il
there Is God in heaven. Let it not be sup
posed that all of these houses arc bad. Some
the greater part perhaps-are to be classed
mated by the bad ones, and the best suffer
overcrowding
Suppose you were born in rotten tene-
ment, would not you be fought Ten to one
that you would Scarcely out Of your mothers
arms you would find tho whole world against
you. Your father, if you had one claiming
the title, would get so sick of his nasty sur
inebriation as relief, then he would come
panions would bully you, teach you to swear
and steal, stump" you in the neck when op-
portunity offered. AS you grew up evil COM
panions would cleavo to you. No good In
fluences would touch your poor little life.
You would have to shun the filthy home and
seek the solace of the beer saloons. You
would learn all things evil and learn to judge
evil as good. You would be tough just as
no. mi ot,,,., oil "a Rat tEa1 1on
lord is not to blame, his apologists say. He
perforce shun. 1t drives them to rum holes
as toa refuge. Yet the landlord is not to
blame
Here's lovely place for civilized city
the best city in the world. Filthy Railways,
cellars with low ceilings and damp floors,
bedrooms without ventilation save what
the top floors having no ventilation. These
are the delightful apartments which are sup
posed to hatch out the creme de 10 creme Of
Inhabitants Here is ono of them recently
looked up: She is n 25-year- old widow, comes
from Germany and has been six years in this
country. She is laundress Maximum
wages Sc a week; minimum, fifty cents. No
other honest resources Two children, aged
Sa!S khNA ~ iAoiCiIS. AscuS VI LWo AoOnAos
81 per month. The bedroom is perfectly dark,
the only light in it entering by the door.
There is no window save into tho hall. The
young widow is extremely pale and nervous.
She suffers from frequent attacks of rheuma-
tisln. And she is put down as immoral
Think of it! woman enjoying these luxu-
ries immoral How perverse is human naturel
Tho house is full Of Italians. 1t Is never
cleaned unless by the tenants. The privies
are never cleaned. And two innocent chill
drcn, with such mother, have got to grow
up and face the world if they do not die in
the growing
The landlord who owns big tenement on
Batavia street has had put up Sign saying:
"No ball playing or other games in this yard.
No lounging, and nobody but tenants allowed
in the yard" AS tenement house boy re-
marked recently: "1'm tired Of livin' There's
no place to go; there's no place to play there's
no use in havn' a holiday, anyway. II you
play ball in the park tho cop chases you off;
If you play ball in the street you get arrested
I'm tired of livin'. n'."-New York World